Rising record prices at your local shop. Is it happening to you?

I've been shopping at the same two record shops for years. Yesterday, at one of the shops, I found copies of Elvis' debut, and his second album.

I brought the albums to the counter to pay (this particular shop doesn't have all the items priced. You bring them to the counter and the owner prices them for you) and the owner grabbed the Goldmine book and looked up both albums. As we all know, no one uses Goldmine prices. A record is only worth what someone will pay for it. Anyway, he told me that each one is worth about $500, but he would give me both for about $100 a piece.

Roughly two years ago, I bought a super nice copy of the debut for $8 from this shop. The jacket is almost EX and the vinyl is VG+++. But, being a recordholic, I wanted to buy these copies too.

I couldn't believe it. In all fairness, I got a super deal for $8 a few years ago...but $100 per album is a bit steep. I walked out without buying either album.

This type of thing is becoming more and more common in my experience. Prices are going through the roof. Albums I bought a few years ago for less than $10 now go for $30 and up.

Is anyone else having this experience?

 

That's excessive to say the least. I shop at the place that sometimes does not price stuff. Those LPs are $5-6 usually. I would think that a $100 LP would be obvious to the shop owner and tagged accordingly. Perhaps even behind the counter.

 

It's called supply and demand, the demand for some records is rapidly rising and the supply is diminishing, if those were first presses in nice condition I'd have happily given him what he wanted and been pleased with the bargain I'd got, the guy has offered you an 80% discount on the book price and you are still not happy. It's a shop, he has to buy the records, pay rent and all the other overheads, VAT and other taxes, he's probably making under $50 on each and you are still not happy and people wonder why many shops put the best records on ebay. Whether we like it or not the price of most things goes up, the standard price in my local shop used to be around £2, now it's £10, I don't complain, it's still very good and my income is a lot greater than it was in 1984.

 

Are you talking about collectors items specifically or in general? Generally speaking I don't support a well established record store here in London called Rough Trade anymore. I discovered that compared to other record stores their prices are sky high and they blatantly rip customers off. Especially with RSD this is evident. I make sure these days to shop around for the best deal, whether online or in record shops.

 

I think we need to clarify if these were first presses in nice condition, the same as those listed in the Goldmine guide, in nice condition they are worth three figures, if they were some later represses then I'd agree that the guy in the shop doesn't know what he's doing, or does and is being somewhat dishonest.

 

Book prices, though, are based on EX/NM grades. Neither of these records fit that category. I'm almost willing to bet that when I go back there within the next few weeks, those albums will still be there. And they won't be $100 a piece.

 

Yes they were first pressings, hovering around a VG+++ grade.

 

If it's bands like The Beatles, or Led Zeppelin, YES.

My local store had a minty copy of Zep II for $25. It wasn't even an RL. That same record would have been in the $10-15 range 5 years ago. I bought quite a few decent Zep records from the store 5 years ago, and I didn't pay more than $10 for any of them. Now you're lucky to find one for less than $10.
They also had a beautiful copy of Sticky Fingers by the Stones for $20. It wasn't even an original press. I wanted it, but not that much.

Edit: I see my store isn't as bad as yours is, but the prices are still higher than they were.

 

I was totally shocked when I discovered Rough Trade add extra pounds on their retail prices, I guess there's not enough competition left in London these days, they are in business with a shop down here now, I haven't checked if the prices have gone up, but I doubt they'd get away with the same behaviour here.

 

If they were US, British or French first presses in that sort of condition I'd have offered $160 for both, (but still paid the $200 if pushed), bought them and hopefully moved them on for a profit quite easily, (actually I only have later pressings so may well have kept them). Unfortunately for those of us who remember the good old days of £1 records times have changed and so have the prices, on the positive side, all those records we bought cheap are worth a lot more now.

 

Being in Paris myself, I have to ask : where was this ?

 

I'm not really in Paris.

 

I have a customer who lives in the Scottish Highlands, he asked me to pick him up several of what I regard as very common, easy to find and cheap records, guess what, they aren't common and easy to find any more, not so cheap either, records that ten years ago were clogging up the cheap sections in shops are now £10 and selling as quickly as the shops get them in. It may not be the same everywhere, but around here there are hundreds of new vinyl buyers, either younger people, or those that switched to CD who are now coming back to records, demand is growing and on some titles competition is getting fierce and prices are rising accordingly. I'd rather have a healthy vinyl market with strong demand, even if it means paying more, than go back to the dark days of the 1990s when new records could have disappeared for good, it doesn't help our pockets, but it does help our hobby, passion, or whatever you want to call this addiction.

 

Ah. It did seem strange, and possibly illegal, that a French store would abstain from pricing items offered for sale.

 

I feel super fortunate. All the prices as Jerry's are super reasonable. The "in demand" stuff is tricky to track down simply because it's gone the second he puts it out on the floor, but it's still priced more than reasonably.

Jerry does do eBay auctions for the really rare/collectible stuff. But he's also been known to have something like a VG $10 Velvet Underground & Nico first pressing lurking in the bins.

 

The high prices on the common, less desirable titles haven't hit my store yet. I left my record store yesterday with 4 records, and I only spent $30. One of the records was $13, and that was a Runaways record, not very common, so I'd expect to pay that much. So I paid $17 for 3 records, which comes out to less than $6/each. I almost always will sift through the 1/2 dollar bin because my store will put nice copies of the less desirable records in there, just to get rid of extras.

I do agree with your feelings about strong demand, and the prices that it brings. I know my store was struggling for a while. The moved to a better location, and raised their prices a little. They now seem to be doing much better.
I'd rather pay a little more to a local brick & mortar store, than have to always press my luck buying online.

 

Hes got 3 stereo's at the moment - not at $10 though

 

If they don't put the price on it, I won't buy it.

 

Given how generous his pricing is overall, I can understand that. And maybe I shouldn't say that copy was VG...the banana was peeled. Personally, I wouldn't care about something like that (not a huge VU fan but I understand the value of that record).

I've built up a pretty nice Dave Brubeck collection for not much $ just by hitting up Jerry's once a month or so.

 

There was one guy who opened a store here in Pgh...won't mention names since his storefront closed and he's back to flea markets. His records would have a price sticker on them, but then it would have a color coded sticker on it, and that's what he actually used to price it at the checkout. It was confusing, for sure...but also irritating bc his stock was mostly '70s soft rock that would otherwise be in the Half Price Books $1 bin. He didn't last long in the local hipsterish neighborhood.

 

Are you talking about the original pressings of the first two Elvis LPs? If so, they are worth way more than $8.00.. If they're first pressings in nice shape, sure they could be $75 - $100 .

 

I have pretty much stopped going to used record stores as supply has pretty much dried up and what they do have is ridiculously priced too high. I have better luck going to The Goodwill store for my used record fix. To be honest, I purchase mostly new records theses days. There's little being sold at used record stores that interests me anymore.

I imagine in ten years or so there will be a much better supply of quality used records out there.

 

I know - we're griping because Jerry's jacked up prices from $4 to $7 on the good stuff! I bought so many fantastic records there for $3-$5 since 1991 that it's almost obscene.

 

Of course prices are going up. Demand is increasing and it's not like more original pressings can be manufactured to meet the demand. I'm glad I got back into vinyl a few years back before things went crazy. It's hard to find a bargain these days.

 

Then the wanker should price the expensive records. Bad business move